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Endeavour Fund welcomed by FF As an organisation that consistently calls for science and ground-truthed research to underpin policy and regulations, Federated Farmers has no problem with the government investing $249 million in the 2018 round of the Endeavour Fund.

"It's a lot of money but it should be viewed as an investment in our future," says science and innovation spokesperson Andrew Hoggard.

"The nation has some big challenges ahead, including improving resilience to climate change, protecting biodiversity and maintaining economic performance.

"The Endeavour Fund is New Zealand's largest research and science contestable fund and the 69 multi-year projects approved should deliver us real gains in knowledge and future opportunities," says Andrew.

"At least 19 of the projects directly relate to agriculture and food production, which is appropriate given that it is the primary sectors that produce the lion's share of the country's export earnings."

In particular, Federated Farmers is pleased to see an $11.4m NIWA project to advance the carbon inventory locked up in our forest, grassland and urban environments, and $7.7m to a Lincoln Agritech-led team which will seek better understanding of the pathways by which nitrogen travels from land to waterways — a project which Feds identified as a priority.

Massey University will get $11.2m for its project Milks Mean More: Unlocking the potential of New Zealand's ruminant milks, and NIWA will use $8m to explore new technologies to double the effectiveness of on-farm diffuse pollution mitigation.

"New Zealand farmers pride themselves on being world leaders in both production and sustainability. We need the best science and research data available to step up our game even more," says Andrew.